Saturday, July 11, 2015

There’s not that signature position player in the Big Apple on center stage, but there is Trout in Anaheim and Joc Pederson, Kershaw and Yasiel Puig in Los Angeles. Bumgarner and Joe Panik are in the City by the Bay and Paul Goldschmidt is in Phoenix. Nolan Arenado is in Denver, and Moustakas, Salvador Perez and Eric Hosmer are in Kansas City. Sale’s on the South Side and Kris Bryant the North in the Windy City, and Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Fernandez are opening ...

When MLB first implemented these rules, the expectation was that we’d see no more than a few million go into the league’s kitty, since the penalties would discourage teams from going over their budgets. After this most recent July 2 period, the penalty fund since the new system was put in place has now exceeded $80 million — and might even be considerably higher. Since nobody planned for this, nobody knows what to do with all of that cash. For now, it just belongs to Major League ...

The All-Star game just isn’t the same. It used to be an event. Players in one league wanted to show the players in the other league that their team was better. It’s was also one of the only chances for fans to see players outside our home team’s league.

That’s not the way it is now. With interleague play, MLB.TV, and the games available on cable TV, we get to see any player just about any time we want. It’s also become a game with 1,000 players on the roster where everybody has to ...

I know it might be hard to believe but she was hit by a rocket by *Didi Gregorius*.

Others ducked on the foul ball before it hit her. You could tell by the bounce that the ball just skimmed her head. Now, I don’t know whether she was distracted or just had a slow reaction. What shocked me, however, is how quite a few fans in her section were still fixated on watching people attend to her while the game was still going on. If you are going to sit in seats that close to the action, you need to ...

The kid can hit a little bit but I will be shocked if he can hit enough to off-set that glove.

Infield coach Joe Espada said Refsnyder looked better in spring training than when he watched him last year as a scout.

“Compared with what I saw the previous season scouting, there were a lot of improvements with his maturity and decision-making on the field,” Espada said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ve got.”

With the Tigers at the end of a good run, it might be a good time for Dombrowski to head to a new place.

One name that could be added to that list: Dave Dombrowski, the club’s president and general manager for 14 seasons.

Dombrowski’s contract expires at the end of October, and on Friday he declined to speak about his status when contacted by FOX Sports. However, major-league sources say there’s been no recent progress toward an extension for Dombrowski.

Friday, July 10, 2015

FanGraphs has published in-season projections for a few years. These projections account for changes to the team depth charts, so they’re updated from preseason team projections. I was able to access them using the Wayback Machine. The goal here: what’s more predictive, between three months of performance and updated team projections? I have just two years of data, meaning a team sample of 60, but we can at least see what’s there.

Of course, Betts’ contributions haven’t only been limited to offense. In his first season as the regular Boston center fielder, he ranks third among all outfielders with 13 Defensive Runs Saved, behind only Tampa Bay’s Kevin Kiermaier and Toronto’s Kevin Pillar. According to the Statcast™ leaderboards, he’s No. 1 among the 80 outfielders who ...

With the second-worst record in the majors, the Marlins have finally reached the jumping off point on the season and are telling teams they’ll listen to offers for pitchers Mat Latos, Dan Haren and Brad Hand, and backup infielder Jeff Baker.

Steven Matz has a partial tear of his lat muscle on his left side. He will be out at least three weeks, the Mets announced Thursday. Sources told the Daily News that the big lefty could actually be out “several weeks.”

Matz, who was examined at the Hospital for Special Surgery on Thursday, was given a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection, which doctors use to try to promote healing in muscles and tendons. He will be re-examined by team doctors after the ...

July 10
1884: Hugh “One Arm” Daily of Chicago‚ having tied Charlie Sweeney’s one-game record of 19 strikeouts in his previous outing (including a 20th strikeout that eludes the catcher but is not counted by the rules of the day), becomes the first big-leaguer to throw consecutive one-hitters‚ defeating Boston 2-1. By season’s end Daily will have hurled four one-hitters‚ a record equaled by Grover Alexander in 1915.

DE: I know you weren’t a fan of your former teammate Jim Bouton’s book, Ball Four, but in many ways the publication of Ball Four made your book possible.

JP: Eh, I didn’t read his whole book – I just read certain things that were said about some guys on the club, where he’s the last one to talk, you know what I mean? And I didn’t like how he ####-talked about Mickey [Mantle], and stuff like that. I mean, we had a saying in baseball that, “What you see here and what you say here, let it stay ...

President Coppin, of the Colonial league, recently fined the members of the New Bedford “Whales” for an odd exhibition of umpire baiting.
...
Late in the play with New Bedford at bat the umpire, after calling “batter up” several times, turned to the bench to ascertain the cause of the delay. He saw all of the players of the club lined up on their knees in an attitude of prayer and it was explained that they were supplicating better umpiring.

Thursday, July 09, 2015

We’ll check out every error he’s made, but here’s a remarkable thing to consider: Baseball Info Solutions has Semien with +1 Defensive Run Saved. In other words, a league-average shortstop, even with all the errors. That’s the same rating that Asdrubal Cabrera has, who has made just two errors. (UZR is more harsh, with Semien at -14 runs, second-worst in the majors to Desmond.)
...
Semien’s 27 errors have led to just nine unearned runs. But you can argue the only error that cost the A’s a game ...

Whichever direction Preller chooses, he’ll have strong backing from the the owners, who’ve been enamored with Preller’s tireless approach to player development and scouting, both stateside and abroad.

“We’re ecstatic with the collaborative environment, the creativity, the will to win, the competitive nature,” Dee said. “Some of the things we’ve done to this point haven’t worked out, but we’ll jump right back on it and keep swinging.”

Recently, Miguel Cabrera hit the 15-day DL for the first time in his HOF-worthy career, and I felt bad. The Tigers (the favorite team of all my Michigan-bred blood relatives) have been the team I rooted for in every October since the 2011 season. I don’t want, at any point, one of the best players in the game to have to take unwanted time off and sit on the bench, recovering, while his teammates are forced to pick up the slack around him.

Oh, please, stop your whining. Clayton Kershaw was not selected to be a National League All-Star. The sporting world still spins.

Here’s a real news break for you — he shouldn’t be.

It’s supposed to be a game featuring the players having the best first halves of the season, not having really good seasons. There shouldn’t be any free pass based on past excellence. It’s an All-Star game, not a lifetime achievement award.

A merry little argument has arisen between the Brooklyn and Chicago clubs of the Federal league over the case of Tex Westerzil [sic], the third baseman recently sold by the Brookfeds to the Chifeds. After having had Westerzil for nearly two weeks Manager Joe Tinker, of Chicago, announced Tuesday that he had decided to return the player. Brooklyn will not take him back.

Royals All-Star left fielder Alex Gordon left Wednesday night’s 9-7 win on a cart due to a left groin strain, according to the club.

The Royals said that Gordon is having an MRI to determine severity of the strain

“I’m hopeful that it’s not an extremely long term thing, and I mean extremely long term, I’m talking months,” manager Ned Yost said. “Could be, though. We’ve got to see. He’s getting an MRI right now and we’ll find out.”